Many surgical procedures necessitate the use of one or more surgical devices to retract tissue at the surgical site. Such surgical devices are generally known as surgical retractors. A wide variety of surgical retractors have been patented, some for general use and some for specific use. Many of these surgical retractors however, fail to provide any advantages such as, but not limited to, a less complicated and safer surgical procedure that can reduce the risk of nerve damage, anatomical deformity, and cross-contamination, reduce tension on the retracted site, and provide limited incision length.
Also, many surgical retractors do not take into account the anatomy of the surgical site and thus are not ergonomically designed. If the surgical retractor is not designed and/or made for a specific procedure and/or tissue (e.g. tissue, muscle, muscles, or muscle groups), the risk of damage as noted above is greater. In cases wherein no specific surgical retractor is available, surgical retractors or other surgical instruments not designed for the specific procedure may be used on tissue for which it is not specifically intended. For instance, when performing a muscular lengthening of the gastrocnemius and/or soleus muscles, a vaginal, anal or rectal speculum or standard metal retractor, which is not anatomically designed for the procedure, may be used.
Moreover, it is vitally important to have adequate lighting for the surgical procedure. However, the availability or amount of light at the surgical site is typically lacking. In view of this, surgical instruments including retractors have been devised that include one or more light sources. Because heat is typically not desired during surgery, the surgical instruments and/or retractors use LEDs as the light source. However, the light sources are fixed with respect to the surgical instrument/retractor. This restricts the ability to provide light to a targeted area during surgery, such as at or in the incision or incision area. Therefore, it is easy to see that current surgical instruments/retractors restrict the visibility due to inadequate lighting within the working space.
The present invention sufficiently addresses the above concerns.